Long flights

[EHM-1612 Paolo]

Hi all,
one week ago I decided to did the flight from YSSY to LGAV with the boeing 777-200LR. I opened FS navigator, took off and got to cruise altitude. Then I Had to leave home. When I got back, after 11 hours, I realized that my route was 800nm west from my position. What do I have to do to mantein the aircraft on the route?? I know that it's a very difficult question but I know that this is EHM and there are a lot of captains better than me.
Thanks,
Paolo Mazzoleni
EHM-1612

[EHM-0654 Murray]

Were you flying on GPS/MCP heading or did you turn on FSNav AP control? What about weather effects?

On a long flight like that, the HDG will change as you move around the earth - it's a great circle effect that I've never fully understood, but I see it often enough in FS - had it yesterday in fact on the long group flight; set the HDG to match what the FMC is steering then 30 minute later the FMC will have adjusted it's steering and I have to tweek the MCP HDG bug, yet the line on the nav display is dead straight...

[EHM-1343 Jonathan]

IN PSS 777, did you have the route in the FMC/CDU aswell....it is not enough to only have the route in FSNAV

[EHM-0948 Bruno]

.. also, don't forget that you need to set the arrival route to the runway. If not, the PSS will give you a "END OF ROUTE" right after the last waypoint that you have on your FMC.

[EHM-1612 Paolo]

I was using only the aircraft's AP. I don't have PSS. Does the FSNav AP changes the aircraft HDG by itself??? I am really desperate because I'm trying to discover new systems to turn on the PC after 11h and finding the aircraft exactly on route. Yesterday I tried with the tower view and it has gone very well: only 100nm between my aircraft and the route ( but this only after 4h....:]:]:]) SOS.
Paolo Mazzoleni
EHM-1612

[EHM-0948 Bruno]

We have a software called "Simple FMC" on our suggested downloads page.

Maybe you can try it out next time ...

[EHM-0744 Alex]

The view you use has no effect on wether the aircraft steers left or right of your route. The only thing that affects this is the shape of the route and the distance. To correct this, if you use only standard FS autopilot, switch the NAV/GPS nob to GPS, and click on the NAV setting of the autopilot. This of course works only if you have a flightplan set into the aircraft, however i'm sure you know how to do that already.

I hope this solved your problem;)

[EHM-1001 Robert]

Well, if you setup the autopilot to a heading, the aircraft will follow it continously, regardless if you created an FSNAV flightplan or not. If you have a FSNAV flightplan but did not activate it by Shift+F9, the aircraft will stay in normal autopilot mode. If you activate FSNAV flightplan by Shift+F9 it will take over ALL autopilot functions and will command the airplane on the given FSNAV route. If you deactivate again FSNAV by Shift+F9, it will give back the command to the normal autopilot and it will simply follow the last given heading.

It works the same way on real aircrafts. If you disable LNAV and VNAV mode, your airplane will follow the last given parameters and will not fallen from the sky, but after activating again LNAV and VNAV, the Flight Management Computer will follow its own program.

[EHM-1612 Paolo]

Thanks all, everything works great!!!!:>:>:>:>
I've always said that EHM is the best....
Paolo Mazzoleni
EHM-1612